Materials

Technique

Dimensions

Length: 67.4 centimetres

Width: 50.7 centimetres

Diameter: 40.5 centimetres

Curator's comments

Tiwi Islanders carry out elaborate Pukumani ceremonies after a person’s death. These funerary ceremonies include elaborate body decoration, complex burial rites and numerous performances. They can take place over a lengthy period of time in order to fully mark the passing of that relative as well as express grief.

Burial poles or tutini are painted with natural earth pigmentsand erected at specific grave sites: they represent the body of the deceased relative or possibly ancestors.

Large bark baskets or tunga are also made specifically for these ceremonies. Various designs or jilmara, are painted on the body as well as on the baskets and burial poles. These designs can relate to a person’s identity, clan, country or dreaming. Gifts of food are brought to the funeral in tunga, and at the conclusion of the ceremony, they are upended on top of painted tutini. The painted tunga and tutini stand as a memorial to the deceased and their relatives and are left to be worn away by the elements.

Artists continue to make tunga, often for commercial sale and use innovative interpretations of traditional beliefs.For contemporary versions see 2012,2032.1 & 2011,2014.1The bark is likely Darwin stringybark [Eucalyptus tetrodonta]